Ex Chao Novus Ordo
by ordinaryguy2
Summary: Zatanna the Magician gains god-like powers and alters the reality of Earth. But, how is this possible?
1. Chapter 1

**EX CHAO NOVUS ORDO **

by Carycomic

**Translation**: "_Out of Chaos, a New Order_".

**Synopsis:** _this is the way I would've reintroduced the present-day Red Hood II to the DC Universe (without the hypertime bubble-bashing of Superboy Prime)._

**Characters and concepts:** _if you recognize them, I don't own or profit from them._

**Chapter 1.**

Greetings! I am called the Phantom Stranger.

In the universe that existed before the First Crisis, Jason Todd- -the second Robin- -had been murdered by the Joker. But, not so, in this reality! In this one, the one altered by Zatanna the "_Goddess_", I rescued Jason Todd, micro-seconds before the explosion of a time bomb planted by the Joker. I then brought him to the Himalayan land of Nanda Parbat to recuperate. For I sensed he was to play a vital role in the very near-future of this world.

That role began five years ago, when Bruce Wayne was spinally injured in a "_car crash_". Or, at least, that is how the mind-controlled inhabitants of this world remember it. For, in their minds, Bruce Wayne was a paraplegic recluse before the coming of the Goddess. Since then, however, in gratitude for having been healed by her, he has been the high priest of her temple in Gotham City. Yet that Bruce Wayne is merely a double! One of a series of phyto-genetic clones created by a Zatanna-worshiping Pamela Isley to hide the fact that the real Bruce Wayne is no more. That he virtually ceased to exist once he, as the Bat-Genie, granted his mistress that fateful wish.

"_What wish?_" I hear you ask. More on that, shortly.

Suffice it to say that Jason Todd is now the Dark Knight of Gotham City. He is also the founder of the Outsiders. A resistance movement composed of the psychically immune. That is; those who were unaffected by the reality shift... and who therefore remember how things should truly be.

Unfortunately, most such individuals have been rounded up by the Zatanna-worshiping police and committed to Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Hence, the Batman's periodic raids on Arkham! Arranging escapes for the psychically immune with the help of the same person I now seek the aid of… Catwoman.

That is why the three of us agree to meet at the now-abandoned movie theater where the first Batman was truly born.

"Hello, Stranger," she says with a grin. "It's so nice to finally meet you. Jay's told me so much about you, I feel like I already know you as well as he does!"

I do not even pretend to smile.

"Your trademark flippancy is wasted on me, Catwoman. I have more pressing need of your expertise."

"To do what?" she tersely asks, arms defiantly akimbo.

"The current state of the world can be blamed on one thing. A misguided wish, made by Zatanna the Magician, using the fabled Lamp of Larko."

"Larko?!"

"An ancient Bahdnisian wizard," Jason Todd explains. "I read about him in the library at Nanda Parbat during my convalescence. According to legend, he could imbue ordinary mortals with the power, and built-in obedience, of a djinn! Using an oil lamp made from the Atlantean metal alloy called orichalcum."

"That is no more a legend than Atlantis, herself," I reply. "More important, however, is the fact that I know where the lamp is stored! But I cannot steal it personally, because it is protected by mystical wards that would instantly detect any teleportational arrival of magical origin. Hence, my need of you, Catwoman."

She grins, once more. Okay! I'll bite. Where's the lamp stored?"

"Zatanna's palace. Formerly better known... as the White House."

Suddenly, we all hear a sound like rushing wind. Followed by the even more explosive sound of crashing timbers and masonry! After which, a familiar red-blue-and-gold figure emerges from the ensuing cloud of dust.

Catwoman gasps. "It's the Secretary of Defense!"

"I have heard enough!" exclaims the erstwhile Superman. "In the Name of the Goddess, you are all under arrest. For conspiracy to commit treason!"

**tbc**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.******

*** * * * *******

**PHANTOM STRANGER'S P.O.V.****  
**  
As the erstwhile Superman advanced upon the three of us, Jason Todd (in a manner befitting the title of "Batman") threw Catwoman into my arms. Demanding that I take her out of there, at once.

"I'll keep him busy," he added (the grimness of his promise plain for all to see).

"Noooo!" screamed Catwoman.

But, it was no use. For I immediately teleported the two of us out of there. Rematerializing us within the brownstone mansion of the mysterious Baron Winter (which, at this time, was _not_ located in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC), his "pet" leopard Merlin, and their current house guest, the Black Orchid.

"You. . .! You. . .!"

She sought to think of the worst invectives she could hurl at me. Her grief, however, overpowered her and she collapsed in a sobbing heap to the carpeted floor of the baron's living room. Merlin and Black Orchid immediately converging to care for her. The latter hugging her, most maternally, while the former sought to lick her teardrops away, just as comfortingly.

"Go!" commanded the baron. "We will see to her needs."

I nodded. Yet, as I dematerialized, I flashed back to how this all began.

From the Dark Web auction site, run by the ex-super-villain once known as the Calculator, the radical computer prodigy called Anarky had purchased three items stolen from the confiscated weapons repository run by the top-secret Federal entity code-named the Suicide Squad. A bouquet of narco-hypnotic flowers genetically engineered by Pamela Isley. The latest model of mind-controlling computer chip devised by the Mad Hatter. And a teleportation device for traveling through two-dimensional space (discourtesy of the Glaswegian Mirror Master). By means of the latter, Anarky infiltrated the dressing room of Zatanna at her last performing venue. He then deposited the bouquet of flowers on her vanity table before temporarily departing. Consequently, when the Princess of Prestidigitation came backstage, following the conclusion of her act, she entered the dressing room, saw the flowers, and instantly sniffed the bouquet upon reading the note pinned to the surrounding tissue paper. . .and smiling.

For that note had been signed with the silhouette of a bat.

Second later, she collapsed into her vanity table's matching chair. Completely unconscious! Whereupon, Anarky came back out of the mirror to pick up her top hat (which had naturally fallen to the floor) so he could implant the mind-chip within the hat band!

"When you reawaken, my dear, you will add one other stop to your tour. Gotham City! There, you will occupy the penthouse of the finest hotel. Following which, you will invite Bruce Wayne to have a private candle-lit dinner with you."

There followed several more post-hypnotic instructions. Suffice it to say, she carried each of them out. And when Bruce Wayne arrived on the fateful night, in acceptance of her invitation, she proved a most thoughtful and gracious host. It was only when she asked if he wanted some after-dinner coffee that he noticed something.

"If I didn't know better, I'd swear that coffee pot was the Lamp of Larko."

Zatanna smiled and replied: "Ti si. ecurB, emoceb dezylarap! woN, retne eht okraL pmaL. nehT egrem-er sa ym yldnilb tneidebo. . . taB-inieG!

Two white trails of smoke later, the Dark Knight of Gotham City stood before his new mistress. A red turban surmounting his bat-eared cowl. . .and a trail of gray smoke where his legs had once been.

tbc


	3. Chapter 3

**Ex Chao Novus Ordo**

**Chapter 3.**

**THE PHANTOM STRANGER'S P.O.V.**

Zatanna had achieved her "_godhood_" in three stages. And all by wishing upon the Bat-Genie!

Her first wish was that all super-villains around the world, both incarcerated and at large, would be shrunk to the size of three inches tall overnight. Naturally, this phenomenon elicited emergency meetings among law-enforcement agencies and political bodies alike. Even the Justice League of America had convened for a teleconference with the White House! There was one notable absence, however: the Batman. And when Hawkman, the acting chairperson, had asked if anyone knew the Darknight Detective's whereabouts, Zatanna had chuckled.

"He's right in here," she had replied.

Whereupon, she had raised her right hand to show off a new gold ring upon the fourth finger. The centerpiece of which was the Larko Lamp, mystically shrunken to the size of a cubic zirconium. And a second after she rubbed the top of it with her left index finger, the Bat-Genie wafted upward from its spout!

The inevitable micro-second of astounded inaction allowed her to make her second wish. Namely, to be the President of the United States! A moment later, she found herself occupying the Oval Office of the White House, which, in turn, led to her third wish.

To be perceived as the ruling goddess of the whole world.

The way the Bat-Genie accomplished that was absolutely brilliant. Whenever his mistress wished to address her worshipers outdoors, she appeared to them as a giantess at least a thousand feet tall. But, within the White House, she resumed her normal height while everyone around her shrank in proportion. Ergo, her mind-controlled subjects perceived no size disparity whatsoever. Indoors or out, they looked up to her, both literally and figuratively!

This is why it took both Hawkman and Hawkwoman to polish her high heel shoes while the Elongated Man polished them afterwards. While, at the same time, she extended her fishnet stocking-clad legs forward, beneath the desk, so the Flash could use his super-speed to massage the soles of her feet with soothing vibrations.

"O-o-o-oh!" Zatanna sighed. "Oh, yes, Flash! That feels fantastic!"

"Thank you, My Goddess," was his only response.

I watched this scene through a scrying sphere within one of the few places on Earth not affected by the recent reality shift. The Tower of Fate! Nor was I Doctor Fate's only guest to do so.

"I have seen enough," growled the Spectre. "This blasphemy... ends... now!"

"No!" Dr. Fate hastily exclaimed. "You will destroy us all if you do so. The Batman serves her as a djinn. Confront her now, and she will unleash him upon you. Channeling all her worshipers' belief, in her, into extra power for him. The extra power that would require you to exert, in order to defeat him, would also burn the Earth to a cinder!"

"Do you have a better plan, Champion of Order?" the Spectre asked, his bitter sarcasm not hidden in the least.

"If he doesn't, I do."

We turned as one to look at Princess Diana of Paradise Island. Better known as Wonder Woman! Her insular homeland was one of those other unaffected places that I mentioned. And she had been brought to this obelisk by Inza Nelson, the good doctor's wife, via the usual ankh-shaped teleportal.

"What do you suggest, Princess?" I asked as diplomatically as possible.

As with Zatanna's "_deification_", our counterplot was implemented in three stages. Stage One had involved my aforementioned recruitment of Catwoman from Gotham City.* And, in that regard, I had been successful! Though, at an apparently high price. For Jason Todd, the new and present Batman, had disappeared. Yet, so, too, had the erstwhile Superman, Zatanna's "_Secretary of Defense_".

For the latter had not yet returned to the White House!

This led to Stage 2. The "_escape_" of the size-shifting super-villainess, Giganta, from the Federal Metahuman Detention Center! Better known as "_The Slab_" (due to having been co-designed by the Metropolis branch of S.T.A.R. Labs).

This was accomplished by having the spirit of murdered circus acrobat Boston Brand, more fittingly known as Deadman, temporarily occupy the body of one of The Slab's prison guards. By that means, the anti-psionic head band that normally prevented Giganta from willing one of her self-enlargements was sabotaged. When that had been accomplished, Deadman transferred himself into Giganta's body, thereby directing her "_escape_" in the direction of the White House!

"So far, so good," commented Dr. Fate, upon observing all this through his scrying sphere. "Now to begin Stage Three."

He looked at Catwoman and I as he said this. Whereupon the two of us grimly nodded as one.

**tbc**

*_See Chapter One._


End file.
